Please see the entry for 26 Aug 10 on the MCDOA website's Latest News page for exciting news from Project Vernon, the campaign to erect a monument at Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth to commemorate the minewarfare and diving heritage of HMS Vernon which formerly stood on the site.

Bloody Hell Gazer,I always wished I could paint like that.
Think you spoiled it by leaving your underpants in front of the painting though! Go on! Tell me it's not as hard as it looks? Full of admiration mate.

Bloody Hell Gazer,I always wished I could paint like that.
Think you spoiled it by leaving your underpants in front of the painting though! Go on! Tell me it's not as hard as it looks? Full of admiration mate.

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Not me (I wish it was) but the highly talented John Terry FCSD who has just retired as Head of Fleet Publications and Graphics. I first met him when he worked in the Portsmouth Illustrators Pool in HMS Vernon during the 1970s.

Do read the whole article on the Latest News page of the MCDOA website.

Interesting link, NG. I was 1st Lt of Highburton 1960-2 when she was trialling OSBORN and various other things and then Clarbeston in 1962 which we borrowed from a trot at Marchwood while Highburton was in refit. Nice to see Doug Barlow is still kicking, he was a PO RP1 in Newfoundland when I was a Mid.

Hope you all remember that Vernon was founded by a Gunnery Officer. My Long Course planted a totem pole in the wardroom lawn in 1962, and decorated it with a TAS officer that we kidnapped from his MQ and tied to it. The pole had suitable symbology including a TAS Officer with his fingers in his precious ears.

Not only was HMS Vernon founded by a Gunnery Officer ('Jacky' Fisher) as an offshoot of HMS Excellent in 1876 but the first RN divers were 13 Gunnery branch petty officers and seamen trained at HMS Excellent by Corporal Jones and his team of Sappers sent from Woolwich Barracks by Colonel Charles Pasley RE in 1844.

Wonderful pictures. As you know, they would have been taken during the 'challenge' part of the 1962 'Olympiad' between the Long Gunnery (G) Course at HMS Excellent and the Long Torpedo & Anti-Submarine (TAS) Course at HMS Vernon. The venue alternated each year and comprised the issuing of a challenge by one course (normally wearing some sort of fancy dress to reflect a chosen theme), followed by a response from the opposing course the next day. The event itself comprised imaginative competitive events (fixed so that the other side would host the following year) and wound up with an 'Olympiad' mess dinner in the relevant wardroom.

After the Long TAS Course was phased out in 1972, the Long Minewarfare & Clearance Diving (MCD) Course inherited the mantle on behalf of Vernon. My LMCDO course organised the competition and issued the challenge in 1976. The response came the following day when Cdr Frank Trickey turned up at Vernon driving a pony and trap and wearing full Victorian costume. The ensuing fun and games, culminating in the traditional mess dinner, were suitably aggressive. Thank goodness 'Elf & Safety' wasn't such a serious concern back then.

In 'blank years' when it was not hosting the Olympiad against Excellent, Vernon hosted the 'Bone of Contention' competition against the Submarine Officers' course at Dolphin.